About two months ago, I was sitting on the couch during a book club meeting, listening to one of the ladies rave about Kindles and how she would love to buy one. She got me so excited about the prospect of owning one that I almost went to Barnes&Noble to take one for a test [...] Read more »
Writing Progress: Back to the Drawing Board
After careful consideration, I’ve decided to scrap the draft of Shades of Evil that I’ve been working on. I made the same mistake that I did with Prosperity by crowding the plot with too many characters. There are also some inconsistencies that I felt needed attention before I can continue. Yesterday, I spent the better [...] Read more »
Book Review: Barefoot
This was the third book that was chosen since I joined a book club in April. What’s funny is that all of the women, with the exception of myself and my friend who invited me, love romance. I’ve tried to read romance novels in the past, but I can’t get past the sugary, flowery descriptions [...] Read more »
Barnes & Noble Plans to Topple Amazon with Its Multi-Format Ebooks
Back in 2001, Barnes & Noble entered the Ebook market, only to pull out after sales didn’t meet their expectations. The market was too young, and no one could predict how well it would take off. Amazon, as we all know, took a big risk when they launched their Kindle reading device and wound up [...] Read more »
Amazon: Read the Fine Print Before You Buy a Kindle Edition Book
How many of you read the Terms of Service word-for-word when you’re about to download software from the Internet? I’ll admit that I skim this particular document because the lawyer-speak drives me nuts. I don’t remember having to agree with a TOS before I uploaded the Kindle app to my iTouch last year, but I’m [...] Read more »
Ideas Flowing in Unexpected Places
I’ve been working on Chapter 12 for what . . . a month now? It seems like longer. I had finished it two weeks earlier, only to accidentally erase it the moment I saved the next chapter. While the gist of the chapter remained in my mind, the internal monologue I had written was lost. [...] Read more »
Backlash Over Amazon Monopoly Tactics . . . Continued
I thought this monopoly tactic with Amazon was a done deal when I read that popular POD publishers such as Lulu signed the contract with them. After I read that, I tossed up my hands and went on with my life, as did many others. On occasion, I’d go to the Writer’s Weekly site to [...] Read more »
Jeffrey Deaver: His Writing Process
I’ve heard of Jeffrey Deaver, but I’ve never read any of his books. Some of you may have read The Bone Collector or The Sleeping Doll. CBS interviewed him about his writing process, which he talks about how long it takes him to outline a story and how many pages this outline contains. Then there [...] Read more »
Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door
I read the book when it came out sometime in the mid to late ’90s. It was a deeply disturbing portrait of severe child abuse, inflicted on a 13 year-old. Ketchum did an awesome job of portraying the psychologies of the victim and the abuse, as well as the nightmarish descriptions of the incidents as [...] Read more »
Amazon Stands by Its Decision
Despite the backlash from irate authors, Amazon is standing firm on its decision, although they clarified their reasons in a letter which they posted on their site. I’ve included the link below. Open Letter to Interested Parties The major reason why people got upset was Amazon’s reported stance of exclusivity. They have denied this. No, [...] Read more »